In the Beginning
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit horror.
Warning: "There are three things I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin." - Linus, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown".
Well, obviously that first one's shot out of the water. Still, we post warnings for slash, character death and assorted other things so I thought I'd post a warning for this: This segment includes a character known as 'God', who is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. In short, not the Christian notion of God. Howver his power is so far beyond the rest of the characters that he has been mistaken for both.
This is for a couple of reasons: First I'm just not that interested in writing about a conflict between ultimate good and ultimate evil. Second the main pairing in this segment is Yuri/Satan and the whole idea of Satan/ANYONE is just weird but if 'God' isn't God, then 'Satan' doesn't have to be the biblical Satan. In the anime it didn't seem that Yuri was coerced or tricked into her liaison and I have no intention of making her an ignorant victim.
Prologue: Parental Concerns
Several minutes before his alarm clock would have gone off, Yukio Okumura sat up and switched off the alarm. He took a small gun out from under his pillow and slid it into his ankle holster. Then he swung his legs over the side of the bed and walked across the small bedroom to kneel beside a small toddler bed on the opposite wall, festooned with a brightly colored alphabet bedspread. "Kit, it's morning," Yukio said softly giving the little fox-boy's shoulder a gentle shake. He swallowed and pasted on a smile, "Your first day of Preschool."
Kit's tail twitched. Groggily he reached up and rubbed at his eyes with a small fist. Then he sat up and stretched, wrapping his arms around Yukio's neck, "'Morning Daddy!" he chirped.
Yukio returned the hug with a faint flush suffusing his cheeks. Teaching Kit to call him 'daddy' had been Shura's notion of a joke, Yukio wondered if it had ever occurred to her that it wasn't something that could ever be taken back.
"Time to get up," Yukio said as he lifted Kit out of bed and carried him across the hall to the small bathroom. He used his foot to pull a small step out from under the sink and stood Kit on it. The little boy stretched to pick his toothbrush out of the cup on the sink then held it up for toothpaste. Once Kit was set Yukio got out his own toothbrush. When he started brushing Kit watched their reflections in the mirror and carefully mimicked every move Yukio made. "Good job," Yukio told Kit as he reclaimed the toothbrush and rinsed it. Kit smiled toothily.
Yukio helped Kit out of his pajamas and shooed him toward the shower. He hung his holster on the towel rack, stripped out of his own sleep-clothes and stepped under the lukewarm spray as well. While Yukio worked soap into Kit's hair and the silky fur of his tail, Kit claimed the shampoo bottle and used it to blow bubbles.
"Breakfast's on!" Shura called loudly just as Yukio finished rinsing Kit off. Kit darted out of the shower and made a bee-line for the kitchen, naked and dripping. "I hate her, I really hate her," Yukio muttered as he made a futile grab for the escaping child. Kit threw the door open and raced down the short hall to straight to the kitchen. Shura grinned down the length of the hall as Yukio slammed the door shut. "It's your hardwood floor that's getting wet!" Yukio shouted through the once again closed door.
"Worth the view," Shura called back. "I never knew a person could turn that red before you moved in."
"I hate you," Yukio repeated. But he opened the door a crack and tossed out a towel. "Overalls," he instructed. "I don't want any chance of Kit's tail being seen."
Shura rolled her eyes. "We checked the staff, none of them have a masho. Kit could strip bare and no one would notice a thing."
"One of the other parents could have a masho," Yukio pointed out.
"You're going to have an ulcer before you turn twenty," Shura informed him but she helped Kit into the overalls after drying him off. Then she grinned at Kit, "Peanut Butter and Jelly or pop tarts?" she asked.
"Healthy food!" Yukio shouted even though he couldn't have heard Shura's comments over the running water.
"Jelly," Kit declared. Shura snickered and fixed him his Peanut Butter and jelly sandwich. Yukio emerged from the bathroom in time to see Kit reaching eagerly for the sticky, dripping sandwich. He sighed and grabbed a paper towel, getting there just in time to intercept the first glob of jelly as it squished out from between the bread.
After breakfast Yukio shrugged into his regular holster, it held two pistols near the small of his back and was practically unnoticeable under the light school blazer he now wore in the place of his Exorcist Jacket. Like all the survivors of the Facility, Yukio had been put on extended medical leave. When the leave ended he had requested a sabbatical to concentrate on his school for a few years. While it was Kit's first day of preschool, it was the first day of Yukio's junior year of high school due to the shift in schedule between Brazil and Japan and his decision to jump ahead rather than be held back. Without his Exorcist duties to worry about Yukio had signed up for a number of college classes and planned on having a good start on his sophomore year of college by the time he graduated high school.
Yukio checked his book-bag. He had his notebooks, texts, half a dozen clips of a variety of ammo, calculator, pencils and a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary. Then he packed Kit's lunch and the stuffed rabbit Kit liked to sleep with in a second, smaller bag. "Ready to go?" Yukio called. Kit nodded and hopped off his chair, leaving Shura to finish the rest of her pop tart without help. Yukio crouched down and looped a medical alert necklace with a sturdy chain around Kit's neck. "If you have any problems at school, if anything scares you, just poke the button and I'll come," Yukio promised. He demonstrated the poking the panic button on the necklace and showed Kit his phone as the emergency page popped up on the screen.
Kit patted Yukio on the shoulder, "I'll be okay Daddy," he assured Yukio.
Yukio tucked the necklace under Kit's shirt then carefully lowered a bucket hat over Kit's fox ears, securing it under his chin. "I talked to the teachers at your school so they all know that it's okay if you wear your hat indoors and that I'll be very unhappy with anyone who tries to make you take it off."
"Have fun, make some friends," Shura called as they left.
"I'm sure Kit'll be fine," Yukio said sounding anything but sure.
"I wasn't talking to Kit," Shura replied. "Him, I'm not worried about."
Yukio considered flipping her off, but decided not in front of a three year old. Instead he shut the door, very firmly.
Yukio and Kit waited at the bus stop outside of Shura's apartment. When the bus arrived Yukio picked Kit up and carried him up the tall steps then settled Kit in a window seat. There had been three preschools that were closer to the Academy or Shura's apartment but two of them had a staff member with a masho and the third had someone who reminded Yukio too much of a teacher who'd always hated Rin when they'd been children.
The commuter across the aisle opened up a newspaper. The headline screamed "Investigators still searching for cause of Olympic Torch Tragedy." Below, in smaller print, it continued, "Games canceled. Thousands dead. True Cross officials called in."
Yukio snorted, two weeks and the general public was just starting to suspect that the massive explosion when the Olympic cauldron was lit had been caused by demonic activity. The True Cross had known that Iblis had been behind the disaster since the second day. Still he had to admit it had been barely a month since Shiemi and Gaia had made the existence of demons common knowledge. Yukio wondered if the Grigori would send Rin after the belligerent Hell King now that their Paladin's defense of him had made it politically unviable to execute Rin outright or even to threaten him with execution.
Several loud young men got on the bus. Yukio watched them warily, his hand drifting toward the grip of his gun, but nothing happend. A few minutes later Yukio and Kit reached their stop.
Yukio swung Kit up on one hip and quickly left the bus. Once the bus had driven away Yukio set Kit back on his feet and offered him a hand. Hand in hand they walked several blocks to the preschool. Outside of the gate Yukio knelt down in front of Kit and checked that his hat was secure. "I'll pick you up right after my classes let out," Yukio promised. "You'll have fun with the other children. Don't fight, if anyone is mean to you- Or if your teacher try to make you take off your hat, or if anyone tries to take you away, just push the panic button like I showed you and I'll come right away."
Kit hugged Yukio, "I'll be okay, Daddy."
Yukio smiled wanly. "Let's go see your class," he said and they went in. The walls of the preschool were painted in bright, primary colors. The alphabet and numbers mingled with an assortment of friendly looking animals. It wasn't cheap, but Egin had made Yukio his sole heir, his will hadn't acknowledging either Rin or Rene as his grandsons. Yukio liked the idea of spending his grandfather's money the part-demon children who had been one of the many victims of Egin's Facility.
"Mr. Okumura, Kit, we're glad to see you," the director said coming out of her office to greet them. "Let me show you to Kit's classroom." Yukio and Shura had toured the facility several times and brought Kit to visit before settling on the preschool, but the director still pointed out the various rooms as they walked down the hall. There was a poster on the three to five year-old preschool room that proclaimed "Welcome Kit!" Yukio crouched down with his arm around Kit's shoulders and read a few of the messages from Kit's new teachers to him before opening the door.
"You came back!" one of the other children exclaimed upon seeing Kit. The little girl, nearly five years old and almost ready to 'graduate' to kindergarten rushed over to see to her self-appointed duties of classroom representative. She took Kit's hand and led him off to introduce to the other children.
Kit waved to Yukio and allowed himself to be drawn off.
"He'll be fine," the teacher said kindly as she noted Yukio's worried expression.
"I know it's bad manners to wear hats indoors," Yukio said, "But please make sure everyone knows it's one of the few things he has of his parents. I don't want anyone trying to make him take it off."
"We understand," the teacher replied.
"Kit," Yukio called. "I'll be back by three to pick you up." Yukio was registered for the first school session of the day, but had managed to arrange a few extra hours of classes during the second session to continue improving his Portuguese and start taking some of the more general Freshman college courses. He could barely remember a time when he hadn't been balancing the demands of studying to be an Exorcist and then, once he'd graduated, his commitments as member of the True Cross against his normal class load. With Brazil's shorter school day on top of Yukio's sudden lack of a double life he hadn't known what else to do with himself even when he considered that he'd become a parent when he stopped being an Exorcist.
Kit smiled and waved. Yukio hesitated a moment longer then took his leave.
During the whole bus trip back across town to the True Cross Academy, Yukio couldn't stop worrying about Kit. The little boy had hardly been out of his sight for more than a few minutes since he'd found Yukio after the Facility had been destroyed. After Yukio had cremated his cousin, Rene's body. After Yukio had sent Egin to Hell, undecided as to who was more evil: his father or his maternal grandfather, but convinced that they deserved each other. At least five times before the bus reached his stop, Yukio checked the gps locator on Kit's alert necklace to make sure he was still at the preschool and hadn't been kidnapped or run away or... Yukio wasn't sure of all the possibilities but it was good to be able to glance at his phone and know Kit was safe where he was supposed to be.
When he reached the school, Yukio had to run to make his first class on time. He slipped into one of the seats at the back of the room just as the bell rang. Shortly after the instructor started in on her introductory speech for the new year it occurred to Yukio that someone could have taken Kit's necklace off and left it at the preschool and he'd never know.
Yukio pulled up the gps monitor and zoomed in on the location. After several minutes of staring at the device he was reassured to see small movements. Fifteen minutes after that Yukio thought of the possibility that someone had put the necklace on another child. Of course he hadn't mentioned the panic button to anyone apart from Shura and even she didn't know about the gps, but still….
Shura shoved open the door to the emergency room and deftly wove through the crowd inside to reach the front desk. "Shura Kirigakure, you called me for Yukio Okumura," she said.
"Nurse's station, through the doors and to the left," the receptionist told her. "Talk to the on duty nurse."
Shura nodded and hurried on. At the Nurse's station she repeated herself, "I'm Shura Kirigakure, what happened to Yukio? Yukio Okumura."
The nurse paused for a moment to check one of her charts. "Mr. Okumura had a panic attack in class this morning," the nurse said. "We tried to provide help to control his breathing but our intervention only seemed to trigger further panics. At that point we called you, as his listed next of kin. He's in room 2D, we're monitoring him but otherwise keeping our distance to avoid worsening the situation.
Shura nodded and hurried to the indicated room. Yukio was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed a paper bag beside him. He had his elbows leaned on his knees and his head hanging as he tried to force himself to breath slowly and evenly.
"What happened?" Shura asked.
"Kit," Yukio managed in a breathless gasp.
Shura immediately grabbed her cellphone and hit the speed-dial number for Kit's preschool. She spoke to the person on the other end of the line for a few minutes. "Kit's fine," she told Yukio. "Should I have the director get him so you can hear for yourself?"
Yukio shook his head. "I'm pathetic," he said once Shura had hung up. "In the middle of my first class I just started thinking that something might have happened to Kit. What if someone saw his ears or tail and called the True Cross? What if he got in a fight and hurt someone and they took him away and gave him to some other place like the Facility? What if the True Cross had been watching him all along, just waiting for me to let him out of my sight? What if it was all a trap? What if? What if? What if? The next thing I knew I was gasping for air and I just couldn't stop."
Shura winced. "I guess we could head over to his preschool and pick him up." Yukio looked up eagerly. "But I really don't think you should. Why don't we go down to the batting cages, that should keep you distracted for a few hours. If you make it through the whole day tomorrow will be be."
"Maybe we should just stop by and check on Kit first.," Yukio suggested.
"I'll send one of my snakes," Shura bartered.
Somehow Yukio made it through Kit's first day of preschool without breaking down and pulling him out. But after dinner that night Kit found himself treated to a glut of bedtime stories. Yukio read so many stories that the three year old eventually fell asleep in Yukio's lap while he read.
"I think he's done," Shura said when Yukio finished the story.
"I'll just sit here for a few minutes," Yukio whispered. He set the book aside and leaned back in the corner of the couch. "Let him get a bit more soundly asleep before I put him in bed." Yukio shifted Kit so that the little boy's head rested in the crook of his neck.
Twenty minutes later when Shura got out of the shower she found Yukio fast asleep on the couch, Kit still wrapped in his arms. The little boy's fox ears twitched every now and then, Yukio's hand rested loosely on his back. Shura grabbed a blanket off Yukio's bed and spread it over both of them. Then she went to bed.
The green neon of the microwave clock turned blood red as the hour struck midnight. A tiny swirling pit opened in the center of the kitchen table. A Coal Tar wriggled its way through the miniscule gate, then a second and the third until a whole flock of the smallest of demons swirled around the kitchen. Once the last Coal Tar had squeezed through the gate, it shut on itself. For a few moments the Coal Tars continued to swarm, then they spun together in an increasingly tight cyclone until the figure of Rene Egin stood in the center of the room blue flames burning brightly in the socket of his missing eye.
The demon popped his neck and rolled his shoulders as if accustoming himself to his body then he looked around the room. When he spotted Yukio and Kit he walked over and leaned down to peer at Kit more closely.
Without even opening his eyes, Yukio drew his gun and pressed it into the demon's stomach. "We had a deal," Yukio stated coolly as he cautiously slid out from underneath Kit and set the sleeping child on the couch without his aim shifting an inch. "I gave you your father-in-law, you were to leave my cousin's body alone."
Satan chuckled. "And the old bastard's still screaming. I thought it only fitting that he get experience being burned alive after what he did to your mother," For a moment Rene's face twisted into an expression of deep hatred. Then Satan tsked and shook his head. "But that's not the promise I remember making. Details matter Yukio. I promised to give Rene back to you in exchange for you giving me that miserable old goat. You, my boy, are hard to give gifts to. By the time I managed to round up his soul you'd already cremated him. This time your mother suggested I explain a bit before dumping him on your doorstep."
Yukio frowned. "Outside," he suggested, wanting more distance between Satan and Kit.
Satan grinned, "Don't worry, I approve of the grandson you've brought me. The demon in him is strong. Not so much in your cousin. He may bear an uncanny resemblance to your twin, but he doesn't, or I should say didn't have enough demon-energy to fill a thimble. His soul never would have managed to reanimate his corpse on it's own… So I've lent him some of my power. In return," the devil tapped the cheek beneath Rene's formerly empty eye-socket, "I get to keep an eye on you." He frowned at Yukio. "You haven't been doing so well. Your mother is worried about you."
"Do not talk like you're my parent," Yukio hissed in a low, dangerous whisper. "You are directly responsible for the death of the only person I will ever acknowledge as my father."
"In every incarnation of your mother, our children are the most troublesome," Satan complained. "Perhaps because I can never bring myself to discipline them properly." Then he smiled, the warmth of it shocked Yukio to his core. "Still she is the one, the only one I want by side for all eternity."